A combination of incongruous things, A miscellaneous anthology or collection,
A mixture of dried flower petals and spices used to scent the air,
You'll get it all here, but it isn't gonna smell pretty

Monday, January 08, 2007

A virgin no longer

Well, I did it. I used a slow cooker (crock pot). My brother gave me one for my birthday. This is a bigger deal than it should be, at least to me. You see, I have always been rather bold about how anti-crock pot I am. Those statements stem back to the days in the 70's when my mother would create these gawd awful bland and mushy stews in her crock pot. I hated them. I am not a stew person, which doesn't help. It isn't what's in it, or the flavour, it is all about the texture. Anyway, my brother broke ground when he handed this crock pot over to me. It was like a dare. A dare he knew I would accept, and he knew I would like. We are 2/2. I rec'd the Company's Coming cookbook for Slow Cookers. Great book! We've done the red cabbage in brown sugar and vinegar (very yum!), and last night we had the split pea soup. We served it up with some fresh buns, sliced cheeses, pickles and it was a fantastic supper. I concede. I threw together the ingredients at 8:30 AM and left it. I did NOTHING. Well actually, I did lots! Instead of preparing dinner all afternoon, we finished putting away all the Christmas stuff and at 4:30 I was playing with the kids. I am ALWAYS making supper at 4:30 (unless we are ordering in). It was such a great experience. I am converted, no longer the slow cooker virgin. If you have a fave to share, feel free!P.S. Do you think it is as weird as I do that I am telling you this?

Well, just last night I hauled out the slow cooker - for the second time in a week, no less - and made what turned out to be pretty tasty baked beans, to go with your to-die-for meatloaf recipe that I snatched from Andrea's blog. The beans were good, but oh boy was that a great meatloaf. My folks loved it, Beloved loved it - and well, the boys ate pogos, but that's hardly a surprise.

We also made a bean soup last week that was definitely a keeper. I'll send you the recipe later.

I love my slowcooker - actually cooking a pork roast in Chicken broth is very good or a roast beef (they actually turn out better if they still have ice crystal in it instead of the recommended completly defrosted. I also have a wonderful berry cobbler recipe. Ther eare hundreds of wonderful recipes on the web.

I love mine too! I just found five new recipes in (don't snicker) the Martha Stewart Every Day Foods (December 2006). They include, pulled pork, lamb shanks, ginger chicken and two others that I want to try.

Congratulations on making the move, I am sure over time you will love it more and more.

funny how I just so happened to pull mine out from kitchen oblivion a few weeks ago after years of non-use

I've never been a big fan of slow cookers either, but I'm slowly converting. Having a warm meal waiting after running around all day with the kids is pure homemakers success. I've only used it a handful of times but the meatballs I made last week were quite teh success

Links to this post:

About Me

Happily married SAHM to six year-old twin boys, Gramps (my dad) lives next door who has two grandsons who idolize him...yadda yadda yadda...I am a cyncial, sarcastic, opinionated, outspoken loudmouth (potty mouth too) who is in love with being a Mommy (on most days) but has something to say about everything. I can't say I like to 'argue' but I enjoy a good heated discussion with opposing views, so lemme have it.